When 'denial' is a 'pragmatic' option

By Henry Percy

At the Democratic National Committee fundraiser the other day, President Obama illustrated the need for healthcare "reform" by using the death of one of his campaign workers from breast cancer. He gives us the gratuitous detail that she insisted on being buried in her Obama T-shirt. The audience took that as a punch line and laughed, but Obama looked at them sternly: being buried, or cremated, in your Obama T-shirt is no laughing matter.

You can read more details about Melanie Shouse on the Aggressive Progressive Web site ("Ideas. Inspiration. Action"):

So when the lump came, denial seemed the most pragmatic option. When diagnosis finally followed, the cancer had spread through her body to bone, lungs and liver. It was Stage 4 breast cancer.

At this point, Melanie had some coverage, in the form of Missouri's Medicaid program - a public option, if you will. And she got better, for a spell. But then her private carrier denied coverage for a treatment her oncologist had recommended.

"Denial seemed the most pragmatic option." What an artful sentence. So now denial is a "pragmatic option" when dealing with a lump in the breast? "Pragmatic" is a nice touch here, shows how down to earth, how practical, how, well, pragmatic liberals are. They demand solutions that work! Except, in this case, Melanie's brand of healthcare reform turned out to be anything but pragmatic.

And what was the treatment that she was denied? The implication is that it would have saved her life. What would it have cost? What are the one-year outcomes for that treatment at her stage of illness? The five-year outcomes? Would it have given her another month? Two? Her private carrier is excoriated, but why no criticism for Medicaid? It would appear that the government denied her coverage for the treatment as well. Details are sorely wanted, details that Obama, and Aggressive Progressive, feel no need to provide.

Henry Percy is the nom de guerre for a technical writer living in Arizona. He may be reached at saler.50d@gmail.com.